As Assistant Provost, Ellen provides administrative support to governance processes, assists in supporting faculty recruitment, retention and development initiatives, and administers grants to support victim services, safety and security.

During 2007 and 2008, Ellen served in the Office of Recovery and Support as part of a team dedicated to addressing varied needs that stemmed from the shootings that occurred in April of 2007.

Ellen joined Virginia Tech in the fall of 2000 as director of the Women’s Center. Prior to Tech, Ellen worked at Duke University and was affiliated with the UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Ellen has worked throughout her career on advocacy and support programs designed to promote and advance the diversity of students, staff and faculty members. Her dissertation research focused on faculty search initiatives at ADVANCE institutions. Ellen teaches in the Virginia Tech Higher Education program.

As Special Assistant to the Provost at Virginia Tech, Ellen coordinated the efforts of the Task Force on Race and the Institution and supported the process that resulted in the 2006 update to the university’s strategic plan. During the 2003-2004 academic year she served as the Interim Director of the Virginia Tech Office for Equal Opportunity.

Ellen was born in the U.S. and raised in Mexico where she lived for close to 20 years. She came to the U.S. to go to Northfield Mount Hermon School and later completed a B.S. in Human Development and Family Relations and an M.S.W. in Community Organizing both from the University of Connecticut. She has a Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy Studies from Virginia Tech.